Shepherds Ice Cream, the original sheep’s milk ice cream, will celebrate actor Miriam Margolyes OBE at Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye 2024 with a special flavour.
Available exclusively at the Festival site, 23 May–2 June, the special edition ice cream will be a coffee flavour with chocolate fudge ripple.
Margolyes is a British-Australian actor known for her versatile roles in film, television, and on stage. She has appeared in numerous acclaimed works, including the
Harry Potter film series,
Blackadder, The Age of Innocence, and
The Real Marigold Hotel.
She is appearing in events at Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June, discussing her memoir, Oh Miriam!, joining a special commemoration of the late comedian Barry Cryer, and reading in the special
A History of Women in 101 Objects gala.
Tickets for Festival events are on sale now at hayfestival.org/hay-on-wye.
Shepherds Ice Cream was founded in 1987 – the same year as Hay Festival Global – by Juliet Noble and Martin Orbach on the Herefordshire/Wales border. A Festival stalwart, their ice cream is made using local and seasonal ingredients, often picked straight from their own garden, with their flavours combining old favourites and new surprises.
Each year, the Festival invites the team to create a one-off flavour in honour of a Festival guest of their choosing. Last year, a strawberry and rhubarb flavour was created in honour of Alice Oseman, author of the Heartstopper series.
Miriam Margolyes said:
“Hay-on-Wye has become disturbingly arousing since I heard about the delicious honour Shepherds Ice Cream has bestowed on me. I can resist anything except coffee-flavoured ice cream.”
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“The joy of Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye is as much about what happens off stage as on. Our free-to-enter Festival site has something for everyone to enjoy, from spaces to lounge and read, to entertaining activities in our new Family Garden. Our food and drink offer is a huge part of the fun and we are delighted that Shepherds Ice Cream is adding to this with a unique celebration of one of this year’s stand-out Festival guests. I can’t wait to taste it!”
Shepherds Ice Cream manager Connie Orbach said:
“We are pleased to celebrate two of our favourite things – Hay Festival Global and Miriam Margolyes – with this limited-edition ice cream flavour. If you’re in the area, stop by our ice cream van on site and give it a try!”
Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye 2024 is supported by lead sponsors Baillie Gifford, Welsh Government, Arts Council England and Arts Council Wales, lead media partner the BBC and digital media partner TikTok.
Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, while offering insights and debate around significant global issues, the programme sees writers, policy makers, pioneers and innovators take part from around the world, offering big thinking and bold ideas.
Events offer something for all, beginning with the free Schools Programme, 23–24 May, and including a vibrant strand for families throughout.
New projects woven through the Festival include The Platform for new creatives, the daily News Review, offering analysis of the latest events and Hay Festival Green, prompting innovative solutions to the climate crisis.
Late nights at the Festival are given over to great music, comedy and entertainment, while numerous free pop-up activities and performances around the site keeps audiences entertained between sessions.
Events will take place across eight stages in the redesigned free-to-enter Festival site at Dairy Meadows – which also offers a range of spaces for audiences to explore and enjoy, including the Bookshop, Wild Garden, Make & Take Tent, a host of exhibitors and market stalls, cafés and restaurants, and the new Family Garden where young readers can kick-start their creative journeys – as well as in and around Hay-on-Wye, including performances all week at St Mary’s Church.
